


Counting Seconds

by panlesters



Series: Amelia [5]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Comfort, Dan is a good dad, Fluff, M/M, Parent Phan, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22929097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panlesters/pseuds/panlesters
Summary: it's Amelia's first thunderstorm, but Dan knows just how to help her through it.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: Amelia [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1580938
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29





	Counting Seconds

**Author's Note:**

> big shoutout to claudia @plinth-of-life for the idea for this one!  
> i'm fed up of writing an essay on freud and his fucking castration complex so here's a fic instead  
> enjoy!

Dan and Phil have had a few years of dumb luck surrounding thunderstorms. They’ve been pretty rare the last few summers, and when they have happened they’ve been in the night and Amelia has slept through them. But as Dan sits and watches the black clouds roll over London, and hears the beginning rumblings of thunder, he knows that this is going to be the time. Amelia’s first thunderstorm.

They already know that this is probably going to be awful. Amelia hates all loud noises, if bonfire night and New Year’s Eve are anything to go by, and Dan’s a bit worried that thunderstorms will be just as awful. Phil’s out shopping with her right now, but that almost makes it worse, to think about his little girl caught out as the sky begins to growl.

The heavens open pretty quickly, and soon Dan is faced with a torrential downpour. He sits watching it for a couple of minutes, drumming on the window into the garden, before he hears the door open and little feet running over the hardwood floor in the hallway.

“Shoes off please!” he calls out, getting up from the sofa and making his way into the hall. Amelia is stood grinning with her clothes soaked, looking very proud of herself. She’s left Phil with the shopping bags, but he just about manages to get in from the rain with three big bags in his hands, kicking the door closed behind him.

“You wanna go get changed, Ames?” Dan says, and Amelia is quick up the stairs, dripping everywhere. Dan sighs, watching little patches of wet appear on the cream carpet. It’ll dry, he supposes.

“Hey, babe,” Dan smiles at Phil, who has managed to get through to peck a kiss to Dan’s lips. “Fun trip?”

Phil huffs a laugh. “That kid is so hyper today.” He shakes his head with a smile. “Did you hear the thunder?”

Dan doesn’t have a chance to reply before a loud rumble comes from the open window outside and Amelia is running down the stairs at them. Dan is closest, so she flings herself at his side, burying her face in his leg.

“You okay, sweetie?” he asks softly, carding a hand through her hair. She’s changed into her pyjamas, and Dan has to smile at that. They’ve really taught her everything they know.

“Daddy, there was a loud noise,” she sniffs, looking up at him. He gently moves her away from his leg and crouches down to her level.

“That’s thunder, baby,” he tells her, running another hand through her hair.

“I don’t like it, Daddy.” She’s shaking her head and her bottom lip is quivering a little. He stands up and takes her hand, and they walk into the living room with Phil.

“Come sit on my knee, Ames,” Dan says, sitting down on the sofa and letting Amelia climb on to his lap. Phil settles next to them both, and Dan raises a hand to start stroking through her hair again.

“Can you make it stop, Daddy?” she says quietly.

“I can’t, baby, but it’s just a storm,” he tells her, gently sectioning out her hair ready for a braid. “It’ll pass over, okay?”

There’s a flash of lightning then, followed quickly by another rumble of thunder. Amelia hiccups a sob, and then she’s turning around to burrow her head in Dan’s chest.

“Daddy, I don’t like it,” she cries. “Why did it do that, Daddy, make it stop!”

“Shh,” Dan murmurs, “I know, baby, I know it’s scary. It’s just lightning, okay? It’s part of the storm.”

Phil gently reaches over and replaces Dan’s hand in Amelia’s hair, picking up where Dan left off in the braid. It helps to calm her almost instantly. It makes Dan smile to think how much she’s just like Phil in that respect. Nothing calms her quite like gentle, casual touch. Which is just as well, really, since that’s the best kind of comfort that either of them can offer.

Dan catches his eye then, and mouths a quick “teddy” to him. Phil leans over and presses a kiss to Amelia’s hair, before he’s out the room. Another flash of lightning and roll of thunder ring out overhead, and Amelia grips Dan’s shirt.

“Hey, Ames, can I tell you something?” he whispers to her. Amelia pulls away from his chest, looking up at him with her big puppy eyes and nodding. “You know, you can tell how far away the storm is from the thunder.”

“Really?” she says quietly.

“Yeah,” he says. “Do you want me to teach you?” she nods, her eyes never leaving his. “Okay, we’re gonna wait for the next flash, and then we’re gonna count the seconds, yeah?”

“Okay,” she says quietly.

It’s another couple of seconds before the next flash of lightning, and then they start to count.

“One, two, three,” they chant together. When Phil walks in with Amelia’s rabbit, they’re at ten, and then they hear a roll of thunder.

“How far away, Daddy?” Amelia asks immediately.

“Well, five seconds means it’s one mile away,” Dan tells her. “So what do you think ten seconds means?”

Amelia looks down at her hands for a second, counting in little whispers before she looks back up at Dan proudly.

“Two miles!”

“That’s right, kiddo!” he ruffles her hair. “It’s a whole two miles away, and it’s only gonna keep going further and further. It’s nearly finished now, yeah?”

Amelia nods, and Phil chooses that time to walk in. She grins when she sees him and lifts up her arm.

“Papa!” she claps her hands until she’s given the bunny, and when Phil is sat down she’s quick to crawl across on to his knee.

“Daddy taught me how to count the thunderstorm!” she grins.

“Wow, he did?” Phil says, his words carrying as much excitement as hers. “Does that make it a little less scary?”

“Yeah!” she looks back over at Dan proudly. “It’s two miles away!” she holds up two fingers to Phil. “And that means it’s really far and it can’t hurt me!”

“That’s right, kiddo!” Phil grins. “You’re so clever!”

Dan’s never been as big on thunderstorms as Phil is. It’s all too easy for him to remember counting away the storms as a kid, on his own in the house. He can see in Phil’s face that he can’t wait for the day Amelia starts to enjoy thunderstorms, and they can all stand out in the garden to watch them. But it’s nice, till then, to sit and teach his kid the little things that gave him comfort when he was small. It reminds him that he really is giving this kid a better childhood than what his parents ever gave him. It warms his heart, to take the information he learnt from google in panic and pass it on to his child, who only needed a little distraction to complement the warmth in her father’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! comments are appreciated, come scream at me @panlesters on tumblr


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